Hard at the top

Hard science fiction predominates in a very strong shortlist for this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award. There are three near-future scenarios. Justina Robson's excellent debut, Silver Screen (Pan), is an exploration of artificial intelligence and the meaning of consciousness. Bruce Sterling's Distraction (Bantam) wittily details the machinations of a genetically altered political campaign manager in a US reverting to tribalism. In Kathleen Anne Goonan's The Bones of Time (Voyager), problems of interstellar navigation and genetic research mingle with the traditional culture of Hawaii to make a satisfyingly rich adventure.

But Neal Stephenson's huge Cryptonomicon (Heinemann) is borderline SF. It follows the cryptographers of the Second World War and the setting up of a modern offshore data havenand explores the potential of information flows for coercion and freedom. Stephen Baxter's Time (Voyager) is a tale of cosmic dimensions, packed with ideas, while Vernor Vinge offers a complex first contact in A ...

To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

To continue reading this article, log in or subscribe to New Scientist